Family Business
by bionic4ever
Summary: Steve and Jaime's oldest daughter is also an OSI operative, and when she's targeted for kidnapping, Jaime takes her place. Can Steve and their daughter find Jaime before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

**Family Business**

Chapter One

Steve was puttering, an occupation he'd grown quite good at since his retirement, ten years earlier. He and Jaime had decided that the almost forty years the two of them (combined) had given the OSI was more than enough, and finally the government was in agreement and let them go. Jaime and their eldest daughter, Lauren, were spending the afternoon together, lunching and shopping, and Steve was on his own, so he was contentedly puttering around the house. He was about to relax in his easy chair with coffee and the newspaper when the doorbell rang. He looked through the peephole and groaned inwardly; the man on the porch was _not _on his list of 10,000 favorite people.

_Michael Marchetti._ If Hannah Austin hadn't been dating Daniel Marchetti, Steve would've simply pretended not to be home, but instead he grudgingly opened the door.

"If you're here to see Jaime," Steve began in a barely civil voice, "she isn't -"

"Actually, Steve, I was hoping you and I could talk."

"Ok," Steve said, even though he'd rather have every one of his teeth pulled without anesthetic. He stepped aside so Michael could come in. "Can I get you some coffee? A drink?" he offered. _I could use a good, strong drink, myself, _he thought.

"Brandy would be great. Thank you."

Steve poured the brandy and a double martini, and the two men sat down together in the den. "Hannah and Daniel seem to be getting pretty close," Steve observed.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Michael explained.

"Oh?"

"Daniel wants to ask Hannah to marry him, but...he's worried."

"He shouldn't be. They're perfect for each other."

"He's worried about us, Steve," Michael said quietly.

"Us?"

"He's worried we might try to throttle each other at the first family get-together," Michael told him. "Will we?"

"Why? Because you and my wife got closer than a doctor should ethically get to a patient, a quarter of a century ago?" Michael flinched, then frowned, and Steve went on. "That's long over with...isn't it?" Michael didn't answer, but Steve couldn't miss the way his skin had paled, or the faraway look in his eyes. "My God," Steve whispered, "you still love her, don't you?"

"Steve, I came here to get it out in the open, so I can tell Daniel – and Hannah – that we laid all our cards on the table and cleared the air. For the sake of our kids -"

"Hannah doesn't know about you and Jaime; none of our kids do."

"Steve -"

"You didn't answer my question."

"Steve, Hannah knows," Michael said, barely able to get the words out.

"You told _my_ daughter? _You had no right!_"

"_Daniel_ told her. He...wasn't aware Hannah didn't know, and he wanted to hear her feelings about it."

"Well, that's just great. Dammit – there was no reason for that to come up."

"You don't think so? Steve, think about the holidays, the family occasions when you, Jaime and I would all be in the same room."

"I'd rather not," Steve said, civility nearly gone now. "But I suppose it's no good to close the barn door when the horse is already out. So, are you?"

"Am I what?" Michael asked.

"_Are you in love with my wife_?"

Michael's eyes were beyond sad. "_In love_, no. Jaime's heart is with you; always has been. I didn't try to interfere with that 25 years ago, and I wouldn't dream of coming between you now."

"Just answer the question."

"I...do have feelings for Jaime – yes." Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Feelings I would never act upon, and that have nothing to do with our kids."

Steve wasn't sure if he wanted to punch him or thank him for his honesty, but the insistent ring of the telephone saved him from having to decide, at least temporarily.

"Hello? Lauren, what's wrong?" Steve couldn't understand what she was trying to say. "Take a deep breath, Honey. Good. Now – what happened?" He nearly dropped the phone as he listened to his daughter. "Ok, Lauren, I want you to head straight to Oscar's office. Tell him exactly what you told me, and I'll be there in twenty minutes. Don't worry," he told her, knowing those two words were utterly useless. "We'll get her back. I love you, Honey – now go straight there. And be very careful."

Steve hung up the phone, and Michael was already on his feet. "Steve...?" he asked, sensing in the pit of his stomach that Jaime was the subject of the frantic phone call.

"A couple of thugs with guns grabbed Lauren – she helped take their boss down, apparently – and Jaime..." Steve had to stop and take a deep breath himself. "Jaime offered herself in Lauren's place, as an ex-operative with even more to offer them."

"Oh, God -" Michael uttered, shocked, as he and Steve both ran from the house.

"The last Lauren saw of her mother, they stuck her with some kind of needle, and two men threw her into the back of a van."

"She get a plate number?"

"Yeah; she'll give it to Oscar. Hopefully he'll have a location, or at least a lead for me, by the time I get there." Steve hesitated very briefly. "Michael, would you do me a favor?"  
"Of course."

"Go back in the house, and just wait there, for now, in case there's a ransom demand, or if somehow, Jaime calls. Reach me through Oscar if you hear anything."

Michael nodded, and Steve took off at a dead run, choosing not to battle mid-day DC traffic, knowing he could get there faster on foot.

- - - - - -


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Steve made the 20-minute run to OSI headquarters in under 15 minutes. He found his daughter and Oscar both pacing the floor as they worked to make sense of what'd happened, to formulate a plan.

"The plate came back stolen, Dad," Lauren told him, before Oscar got the chance to say it. "Dead end."

"You said you know these people?" Steve prompted.

"Yes, but they blew up their own warehouse when we went to arrest them; that's how some of them got away. And now...we don't know their location," Lauren said wistfully.

"But we can find out," Oscar said softly, motioning for everyone to sit down. "Steve, you're not going to like this very much, and we can argue about it later, if we have to, but we can find Jaime's location through a GPS chip in her arm."

Steve was stunned. This was the first he'd heard of it. "When...how...?"

"At your last check-up before you retired, Rudy implanted the chip into both of you, to be used only in the case of a life-threatening emergency – like this one."

"We'll talk about the privacy issue later," Steve said urgently. "Right now, it's a Godsend. So, where is she?"

"Rudy's downstairs in his lab, activating the chip," Oscar explained.

"Let's go. Lauren, you wait here."

"Steve," Oscar said slowly, "Lauren will be the other member of your team -"

"Now, wait a minute! My daughter is not diving into a viper's den to take on armed kidnappers."

"Dad, what do you think I do for a living?" Lauren reminded him.

"She's _good_, Steve, and she's got the inside track on these people – information you'll need, once you find them."

"But -"

"C'mon," Lauren urged, "let's go see if Rudy's got the tracer up and running."

Reluctantly, Steve followed his boss and his temporary new partner down to the basement.

Rudy Wells, now close to 80, moved with the spry, quick steps of someone much younger. "The chip is active, and I've got a signal, but they're still on the move," he told the trio. "Wherever they're taking her, it's out of DC."

"Or they could be going in circles," Lauren speculated, "to try and avoid detection." She looked down at the screen, and Steve placed a hand on her shoulder, extremely impressed. In his mind, he could still see five-year-old Lauren and her twin, James, receiving medals from Oscar for remembering a vehicle description and partial plate number when Jaime had been taken by a group wanting to steal her bionics. The two children had kept their heads and been instrumental in saving their mother.

"They're stopping," Lauren observed.

"Maryland – just over the border," Steve added, writing down the coordinates. "Let's go."

"Wait, Pal," Oscar called after him. His hand extended toward Steve, who shook his head when he saw what Oscar was trying to give him. "I don't need a gun; give it to Lauren."

"I have one, Dad, and you never know." She took the gun from Oscar. "He'll carry it – for Mom," she said as father and daughter headed out together.

- - - - - -

"I can't call you 'Dad' in front of these people," Lauren pointed out as Steve drove toward the Maryland state line. "It'd give them leverage we don't need them to have. And I don't think I should call you 'Steve' -"

"Whatever feels natural is fine."

"Dad, I'm so sorry -"

"For what, Honey? Yes, these men were after you, but you aren't responsible for the actions of criminals, or for your mother's choice to do what she did. You need to know that and _believe_ it."

Lauren nodded silently. "These guys are real pros," she told Steve. "Had an army's worth of weapons and ammo stockpiled, but most of it went up in the explosion. Wouldn't surprise me if they had a second cache somewhere else, though."

"What were they dealing in?" Steve asked, finally beginning to treat her like a partner, instead of just his little girl.

"Weapons systems, mostly - new, experimental ones that we don't have the capability or technology to intercept."

"World domination?" Steve concluded.

"Maybe, but I don't think so. Extortion seems more their style. Get the money and be done with it."

"If they're out for money, they should be making a ransom demand for your mother."

"Oscar's having any incoming ransom or demand calls transferred to my cell." Lauren managed a very slight, ironic smile. "Or, as you'd say, 'that new-fangled contraption trying to pass for a telephone'."

- - - - - -

Jaime opened her eyes to discover she'd been blindfolded and gagged. She tried to pull at whatever was binding her hands and feet, but she had no strength. She remembered the shot they'd given her that had made her body go limp, right before they'd put her in the van and conked her in the head. _Muscle relaxants...must've made me weaker..._she told herself. She could hear two people breathing off to her side, maybe ten feet away, but they didn't react when she began trying to move around. The only other sound she heard was the ominous threat of a gun being loaded and cocked.

- - - - - -

"You've got a datacom, right?" Steve asked, as he and Lauren got closer to their destination. The building appeared to be two suites of offices, bisected by a large storage area, with more warehouse space in back.

"My cell has the datacom frequency built-in; just have to push a button."

Steve nodded. "I can get up on the roof, and hopefully tell you where they're holding her, and which entrance might not be guarded. Then I can meet you there."

"I'm trained in stealth," she reminded him. "I can get into the building. Probably not from the roof, though; better leave that one to you. How 'bout I give you five minutes to make a move from up there, then find my own way in? If they come after us and we've split up, it'll be that much more distracting. Divide and conquer."

Steve hated the thought of his daughter breaking into a building that was quite possibly filled with heavily armed thugs, but...this was his _partner_ sitting next to him, and the plan was a good one. He nodded agreement, his conflicting emotions keeping him from saying more.

- - - - - -


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Jaime heard footsteps coming closer, but all she could do was sit silently. Another needle was jabbed into her arm, and her thoughts grew mushy along with her muscles, but she was still awake. She knew they were standing over her, and tried to kick at them but her muscles no longer obeyed, not even weakly. Still, no one spoke – to her or each other. Jaime didn't know who these people were or what they intended to do with her, but she knew that, at least for now, she had no way to fight back.

A door opened slowly, directly in front of her, and she heard the two men leave as a third one came in. "Hello, Mrs. Austin," he said in a voice as cold as the glint of steel on the barrel of a revolver. "Your bionics are of no use to you, as I'm sure you've discovered. Yes, I do know all about your...special qualities. Ten or twenty years ago, you might've been sold to the highest bidder; probably still could be, but that's too Old School for what we have in mind." He stood just inches from Jaime. "We have no interest in bionics. Your abilities are merely a hindrance that we've already overcome. All we want is your power source."

The man untied Jaime's arms, but she was too weak to do anything to defend herself. She was too weak to _move_. He jerked her right arm up, parallel to the floor, and began to cut. Jaime discovered the drugs she'd been given were **_not_** painkillers, as he began the cut too high, slicing into the flesh of her shoulder before hitting bionics and then finding what he was looking for.

Once he'd yanked the power source from her arm, the man retied her, then gave the chair a cruel shove. Jaime landed on her right side, still attached to the chair, her newly-lacerated shoulder slamming against the concrete. She laid motionless as blankets and boxes were piled on top of her, hiding her from view, then listened as the man – without another word – left her alone in the room, locking the door behind him.

- - - - - -

From a dark corner behind the building, Lauren watched her father make his leap onto the roof. He'd chosen a spot where the back warehouse intersected the storage area in the center. Lauren held her breath as a man came out the back exit, walking straight toward her hiding spot on his way to a car parked a few yards away. There was nothing to truly hide behind, though, and the man grinned as he approached.

"Well, Miss Austin – this is certainly no place for a young lady to spend her time. It's a shame, really, but intruders must be shot on sight." He made a 'tsk-tsk' sound, shaking his head in mock regret as he pulled a gun from his pocket. Lauren was trapped; standing in a corner; there was nowhere she could run. At least her father had made it safely into the building. She stared directly into the gunman's eyes as he took his aim.

The _sploosh _of a single shot through a silencer made Lauren stiffen, but...she didn't fall. Her would-be killer dropped noiselessly and instantly to the ground. She quickly disarmed him and also took the small metal box that he clutched in his other hand.

"Are you alright?" a calm (familiar?) voice asked, from around the side of the building. Lauren jumped to her feet, eager to know the identity of her rescuer. When he came into view, her chin dropped, and her eyes grew wide. "Better close your mouth before the bugs fly in," the man whispered, smiling warmly to try and ease her shock.

_What the hell is **he** doing here? _Lauren wondered, as she struggled to find her voice. All she could manage at first was to utter his name.

"**_Daniel_**?"

Her sister Hannah's boyfriend, Daniel Marchetti, stood next to Lauren, a just-fired gun in his hand. He couldn't be part of the group who'd taken her mother...could he?

"Relax," he said, very quietly. "I'm with the NSB; I'm on your side."

"In that case," Lauren answered, able to breath again, "thank you."

"Glad to help."

"Have you seen my mother?"

"Here? Is she on the case, too?"

"She's a hostage...or worse," Lauren told him. "They tried to take me, but Mom convinced them to take her instead. But – if you're not here looking for her, then what -?"

"A case of 'cut off the head of the monster and it just gets stronger'. Did Oscar send you here alone?"

"My dad just went inside, from up there," she said, pointing toward the roof."

"How'd he get...never mind. Let's go find your mom."

Lauren was partially mistaken; Steve had not yet entered the building when the gun went off. He crept quickly and quietly back along the building to where he'd left his daughter, only to see her being led away by a man with a gun. He jumped to the ground, using the downward momentum to grab the young man, knock the gun from his hand and send him reeling against the building. Only then did he see the identity of the person he'd just hit.

"_Daniel_? I should've known a Marchetti would be behind this. And you sent your father to distract me so you could pull it off!"

"He's NSB, Dad," Lauren said, looking curiously at Steve. "And he just saved my life." She pointed to where the gunman who'd threatened her was lying motionless in the grass.

"I'm sorry, Son -" Steve began, but Daniel shook his head.

"I had a gun, and was taking Lauren into the building. I understand. I'm just glad you didn't hit any harder."

The two men shared a fast handshake and a look of understanding. "I'll ask you about the 'Marchetti' comment later," Lauren whispered to her father. She handed him the metal box. "That guy had this in his hand."

Steve forced the box open and his heart sank to his feet. "Jaime..." he said, very softly, his soul flooding with dread. "It's her power source," he explained, unsure if Daniel knew anything about bionics or not. Lauren, of course, had known for many years. "The minute they took this from her arm...she had about an hour to live."

- - - - - -


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Jaime was still completely alone, but as the drugs began to wear off, blood loss and the removal of her power source took over, and she began fading in and out of consciousness. Her ear picked up the sound of the single, muffled gunshot, but she didn't have time to think about it – or anything else – as her awareness ebbed to nothing.

- - - - - -

The trio outside moved away from the building to re-figure their strategy. "We don't know when they removed her power source," Steve said, struggling to remain calm. "Hopefully, they took it right before our friend over there left the building with it, but if they removed it while they were still in DC, before they brought her here...she's already out of time. Lauren, I want you to call for the Medivac - get them here _yesterday_ – and then wait for us here. Daniel and I will have to force our way inside; there's no time to spread out and infiltrate."

Lauren whipped her cell phone from her pocket, called Oscar and then ran to catch up with Steve and Daniel. "I'm coming in, too," she told them, "and there's no time to argue about it." Steve marveled in silence as they approached the door. Lauren was definitely her mother's daughter.

"Daniel, I'm guessing you've been inside?" Steve asked. "What's behind door number one, here?"

"Very narrow hallway," Daniel summarized. "Leads to the storage area and splits off to both sets of offices. Two guards, though – armed – right on the other side of the door."

"Perfect," Steve said. "Stand back." He raised one foot and gave the door a much harder kick than was needed to open it. The door flew off its hinges in huge chunks, taking down both guards on the other side. Daniel took the guards' weapons and Lauren handcuffed them, back-to-back, each to the other. The trio charged down the hallway, guns drawn, but no more guards appeared.

"Where would they keep a hostage?" Steve asked Daniel.

"We should check the inner offices – the ones with no windows – and the storage area in the center," he answered.

Steve began kicking in doors on both sides of the hallway, and they began to search, working their way down the hall. They were halfway to the end when Steve heard Lauren's voice. "_Don't move! Drop your weapon and hit the floor – **NOW**_!" Steve heard a gunshot and moved at bionic speed to his daughter's side.

He found Lauren standing over two men who were both prone on the floor. She was just cuffing the second one and obviously not in need of anyone's help. When she was finished, she looked proudly at her father. "Shot the gun from his hand," she said with a shrug.

Steve grabbed the one with the bleeding hand, rolled him over and lifted him into the air by the collar of his shirt. "Where's my wife?" he asked with quiet, white-hot anger.

"How the hell would I know?" the man answered with a smirk.

"Lauren, wait in the hall," Steve told her. "You don't need to see this."

"No way, _Colonel_," his daughter answered in a serious, no-nonsense tone. "You might need a witness to state you did nothing to physically harm him." She walked over to stand next to Steve, looking the man who hung in mid-air straight in the eyes. "You have a hostage. A woman. Now, _where is she_?" Lauren demanded.

Steve slammed the man into the wall, then grabbed him again, this time by the throat. "**Where. Is. My. Wife?**" He punctuated each word with another trip into the wall.

The man finally raised one arm and pointed to the end of the hallway. "Storage..." he gasped. Steve released his grip and was down the hall before the man was able to catch his breath. Lauren and Daniel were right behind him, and once they were inside, all three spread out to search. There were boxes and junk strewn everywhere, and no outward sign of Jaime.

They all spotted it at the same time: a small pool of blood, seeping out from under a pile of boxes against the rear wall. Steve threw boxes, blankets and debris out of the way in a frantic rush, until he reached the bottom of the pile and..._Jaime. _She was deathly pale, and she wasn't moving.

Lauren moved closer to her father, suddenly sounding (and feeling) like a very little girl. "...Dad...?"

"She's alive, Honey," Steve said, freeing Jaime from the chair and pulling the metal box from his pocket. He rolled her over and cringed when he saw the slice down her shoulder. "Daniel, find out what the hell is keeping that chopper," he called over his shoulder.

Daniel ran into the hallway and was nearly bowled over by Rudy, the paramedics and Oscar. "They're here, Steve," he responded, ducking into an office briefly to avoid being trampled.

Steve had just finished re-integrating Jaime's power source when Rudy knelt at his side. "How long was it out?"

"I don't know."

Rudy quickly assessed his patient's condition and motioned for the paramedics to get her onto the gurney and into the chopper. "Looks like you got here just in time," he told Steve.

Steve put on arm around Lauren's waist, and his other hand on Daniel's shoulder. "_We_ got here just in time, Rudy."

- - - - - -


	5. Epilogue

Epilogue

Rudy took Jaime directly into surgery and Daniel reported back to his superiors to give his report, while Steve sat with all five of his grown children, finally telling them about Michael Marchetti and the part he'd played in their parents' past.

"Whatever else happened, though," Steve concluded, "he did save your mother's life – more than that, really – he brought her back from death. I'll always be grateful to Michael for that, and I should've known, going as far as he did to save her life, that he'd never turn around and try to harm her. I _will_ apologize, the next time I see him."

"You just did," Michael said, standing in the doorway. "I wasn't eavesdropping; I came to tell you Jaime's out of surgery and she's stable. She's going to be ok."

"That's great news," Daniel said as he joined them, wrapping Hannah in his arms.

Steve and Michael shared a firm, sincere handshake. "That's a wonderful family you've got there, Steve," Michael told him, admiring the small crowd assembled in the waiting room. The two men headed down the hall toward Jaime's room, and once they were out of the kids' earshot, Steve turned to his former rival and smiled.

"You're wrong, Michael. That's a wonderful family that **_we've_** got!"

END


End file.
